Contents

Engineering colleges can be great robotics resources for both hobbyists and professionals. The Humanoid Robotic Group at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group ) researches how to make robots and robot interaction more human-like. Check out the Kismet project, a robot that reacts to humans with life-like facial and vocal responses.

For a wealth of information on robotics and intelligent machinery, the University of California at Berkeley Robotics Lab (http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu) documents research on more than a dozen topics, from air-traffic control to medical robotics. The related Alpha Lab site (http://alpha.ieor.berkeley.edu) also provides loads of wonderful data, specifically on automated manufacturing.

The Tech Museum of Innovation's robotics exhibition (www.thetech.org/robotics) closed early in 2001, but the site lives on, providing an entertaining history of robotics, exhibitions of robot art, and a cool time line of robotics and technology in fiction from 1726 to the present.

Robots have always been central to space exploration, and the NASA Robotics Education Project site (http://robotics.arc.nasa.gov) offers news, events, and information on space robots. The most recent time we visited, NASA was running a contest for school kids to name the Mars rovers that will be launched in summer 2003.

Another NASA site to check out is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's robotics page (http://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov), the "lead center for creating robotic spacecraft and rovers," according to the site. Here you'll find the most cutting-edge creations for other-planetary exploration, including the Cryobot and the Cliff-bot.

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.